Instead of looking for a job

IN SPITE of its increasing wealth, Trinidad and Tobago still has an unacceptably high rate of unemployment and underemployment, most painfully among its young people. The simple reason for this is the fact that the energy sector which drives the nation’s economy and generates much of its income is, in relative terms, not a significant provider of jobs. The need to create more employment, then, is a crucial on-going challenge for the country, one which the Government and the private sector will have to meet if the wealth of the country is to be more equitably distributed and social problems such as poverty and crime are to be alleviated.

This, we presume, is the purpose behind the Government’s CEPEP which involves the formation of companies issuing contracts for enhancing the environment. But the problem with this kind of programme, like the URP, is the fact that it is designed largely as a means of social relief, a “make-work” scheme which is not productive in the economic sense. For a developing society such as ours, one of the most meaningful ways of creating employment is to train and assist persons to establish their own small business, to employ themselves and, perhaps later, to become employers themselves. This, however, is easier said than done, since it requires, to begin with, a virtual revolution in our thinking and approach, away from the old idea of simply looking for a job in this place or that place and towards launching some service, commercial or industrial activity, no matter how small, that would have saleable value. In this direction, the “New Beginnings” community outreach programme, a joint effort between Petrotrin and the Small Enterprising Business Association (SEBA) is to be commended. Indeed, one is encouraged by the large gathering of young people who attended this week’s launching sessions at the Gulf City Auditorium in La Romaine.

According to Mr Rawlinson Agard, Vice President, Human Resources and Corporate Communications at the State-owned oil company, the programme was geared to developing the “skills and savvy” of unemployed persons living in communities neighbouring its compounds at Point Fortin, La Brea, Marabella/Pointe-a-Pierre, Fyzabad and Santa Flora. Participants in the programme will benefit from a series of seminars, workshops and mentorship sessions intended to expand their career options. “It is our hope that this partnership will train people to become self-employed through small business opportunities and in so doing they will gain values of self-sufficiency, self-respect, teamwork and independence.

Part of the reason, Mr Agard noted, why people do not venture into small business was because they lacked the training “to think as business people.” The outreach programme, he said, would give young people the necessary confidence to take the risks involved. Apart from the old pattern of “applying for a job” after leaving school, it is our belief that students should be exposed to some form of entrepreneurial enterprise — Junior Achievement is a good example — so their career options would be widened to take in the world of business. But imparting the “skills and savvy” of launching and running a business to unemployed persons can only be one step in the process; they must also know how to look for feasible and marketable opportunities in the various sectors of the economy and have access to venture capital to be able to set up the operation they have chosen. We would urge participants in this Petrotrin-SEBA outreach to make the best of the training being offered.